


The Feeling Eyes

by puffstrikesback (nadvaa)



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Photographer, Attempt at Humor, College, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, Newtina Appreciation Month, POV Tina Goldstein, Photography, Protective Newt Scamander, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Some Humor, activate Creator's Style for maximum experience!!!!!, bunty and nagini and tina are best friends, designer/artist/student lyfe y'all, implied newleta history, newtina, probably inaccurate depiction of how brits live their life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2019-10-26 06:51:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17740967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadvaa/pseuds/puffstrikesback
Summary: He was less annoying to talk to privately. For now, at least.Tina is an undergraduate student working on her dissertation. Newton Scamander is four years her senior and currently chasing his doctorate degree. She needs him for her dissertation, and he needs her for his upcoming project. After working with him for quite some time, she realizes that he actually fun to be around.But she can't have him.Or can she?





	1. Misfocus

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you for my lovely beta readers, [Amanda](https://lemony-pickett.tumblr.com/) and [Leah](https://letmedownslowly23.tumblr.com/). I've been nagging them by constantly asking "Is it lame? Is it lame????". I love them. So this one is my second try on writing a Newtina series. Also I'm not a native English speaker, so forgive me if there are some slight grammar/typing mistakes. I hope you enjoy this story!

“So… how was it?”

Tina dumped her bag to the floor beside their sofa and threw herself into the pile of pillows beside Bunty. “They accepted my proposal. Picquery also assigned her assistant to be my advisor,” she sighed. “What are you doing?” she said as she glanced at Bunty.

Bunty looked at her and took her hand off her hair. She took her phone and showed Tina her edited selfie. In that picture, she was brunette and her hair was up in two rolls on the sides of her head. “Do you think I’ll look good as redhead Leia or should I dye my hair?” she hesitated before adding, “Should I do slave Leia?”

“You’re cosplaying? What for?” asked Tina as she grabbed a handful of spicy chips. Today had been a physically and emotionally exhausting day. Her back was sore, her eyes were bloodshot red, her mouth was busy munching those chips.

She barely slept last night. Tina was wide awake like an owl with three cups of Americano on her desk— finishing her damn proposal— and then off to fill her morning shift. She started to dream about a good shower and the soft feeling of her IKEA duvet. Ah, the bed. Her sanctuary.

“The costume party! Next month?” she shot her “ _don’t-you-remember?”_ gaze to Tina. Eventually, Bunty let out a deep sigh when Tina just stared at her blankly. “So who’s the lucky assistant that has to work with you?”

Tina threw a few of her chips into her mouth. “It’s your crush.”

There's a weird pause that made Tina glance at Bunty. Her eyes widened. “Scamander?”

“Uh-huh.”

Her friend smiled gleefully. Bunty had been mildly crushing on Scamander since the first time he'd been in their classes. Both of them had been in Piquery’s Visual Language class two semesters ago and Scamander was there as her assistant. The class started at the deadly hour—8.30 am—and Bunty was excited enough to drag Tina out of her bed.

This info seemed to take on Bunty’s interest. “When are you going to meet him and talk about your proposal, then?” she asked while her hands were braiding her long, wavy hair.

Tina kicked the fan so it blew at her. It's warm outside, it's even warmer in their room.

The year prior was the last time they had Scamander in their class. To her, he appeared kind of boring and kind of annoying. He graded her essay once and left a ton of thoughtful comments. Like okay, _maybe_ she needed all that feedback, but was it really necessary?

He wasn’t in her classes anymore but Tina saw him on the faculty from time to time. Now she had to meet him frequently for a semester, out of class. Not that she hated him; she would rather have only Picquery as her advisor, but the professor was way too busy.

“I still have a lot of time, my next meeting with Picquery is not until October,” she told her, still munching her chips absentmindedly. “Probably next week. I'll try to write the stuff I know and let him read all of that.”

Later, of course. Now was the time for all the sleep she'd been losing these past two days. And a cold, leftover pasta. And a shower.

“Yeah, just try not to forget it like the last time,” Bunty said. She was holding her boobs with her hands, her eyes pondering. “But really, what do you think about me in a gold bikini?”

* * *

 

Her week went on smoothly. Only one rock visible in her way: Graves already gave them a big assignment for the whole semester, of course. She looked at the name of his class on her phone: Interactive Media. If she could, she wouldn’t think twice about dropping the class. He would not even let them drink water in his class.

Nagini just came back from Paris a few days ago; she skipped her first days of the term. That girl looked paler than usual, despite coming back from a summer holiday. Although she was almost as pale as the moonlight, it went well with her dark lips. They were sitting next to each other in the library, working with their laptops, whispering words. “So now you’re starting your dissertation?”

“I’m starting to hate it. It’s all cold sweat and shivers. Why did I choose that topic? What if I can’t finish it?”

Nagini moved closer to her, her hand showed a bag of candy under the table. Tina took one. “Shut up. You’ll do great. Besides, I think I’m gonna need another semester, just like Bunty.”

“Because of your failed class?”

She sighed. “I’m a failure. I don’t even feel like to draw. Did you know that Credence could paint the same landscape again and again and they would love it every time? Meanwhile, apparently, my latest one was ‘bland and boring’.”

“The naked one?” Tina took another candy from her. “It's great! It was so sensual without being sexual.”

“That’s the idea!” she said with a slight furious tone. “But… just forget it. Bunty also told me that you got Scamander as your advisor. Have you met him?”

“I haven’t. Why are you all so excited about this? What is special about this?”

“I’m not. I just can’t forget it since Bunty basically screamed that out to me,” Nagini pulled out her old Wacom tablet and plugged the cable to her laptop. “Ask him. Before you forget it all again like last semester.”

Tina stared at her when Nagini took out the pen. “Stop bringing up last semester,” she said defensively. “Also didn’t you just say you don’t feel like drawing?”

“I don’t have a choice. I have to do what I have to do, which is a commission, or no food for a week,” she pointed her pen to Tina. “Ask him now.”

Annoyed, Tina muttered disagreement under her breath, but she lazily texted Scamander just like Nagini asked.    

Scamander  
  
**Tina:** Mr. Scamander, I’m Tina Goldstein, Visual Communication Design.  
  
**Tina:** Professor Picquery asked me to work with you for my dissertation. Has she informed you yet?  
  
**Tina:** I was wondering if we can meet to talk about it

“Done,” Tina showed her phone to Nagini.

She looked away from her mermaid sketch. “Picquery gave you his phone number and not his email? Oh look, he texted back!”    

**Scamander:** she told me, yeah  
  
**Scamander:** im free today at 9.30p  
  
**Scamander:** is it too late?  
  
**Scamander:** we can meet tomorrow morning 

Tina glanced at Nagini. “You know what I want in life? To be a professor and reply to my students' long-ass, proofread emails with a simple, uncapitalized ‘ _no’_ or ‘ _k’_.”  

**Tina:** 9.30 pm is fine.  
  
**Tina:** Where should I meet you?  
  
**Scamander:** do you stay in the main dorm area  
  
**Tina:** Yes  
  
**Scamander:** the sirens tale then  
  
**Scamander:** not too far  
  
**Scamander:** 9.30p  
  
**Tina:** Thank you, Mr Scamander.

“For someone who put a lot of thoughts on my essay, I was hoping he would use more punctuation in his texts,” Tina told Nagini as she stole another candy.

Nagini didn't break her gaze from the screen. “I googled him, you know. Mostly because I never get him in my class and I wonder why Bunty fancies him.”

“Anything intriguing then?” Tina asked, seemingly uninterested.

“He’s like, a well-known street photographer in the community,” Nagini told her. “Check his blog out, it looks great! I see now why Picquery assigned him to help you.”

 _Now_ she was a bit interested. And worried. “Really? I never knew about that. I wonder why Bunty never told me about this. Or Picquery.”

“Newton Scamander. The bloke once won a national contest, Tina. Your dissertation is in good hands,” she grinned to her.

* * *

 

She was too nervous to check on Scamander's blog.

Tina sipped a bit of her favourite rosé from her cup. She sat on the sofa, re-reading her abstract over and over. Was it a weird topic? Would Scamander sneer at her topic? Was this decent enough to show him?

After reading the introduction for the sixth time, she let out a frustrated groan, stood up, and put her jacket on. It’s 9 and the café is only ten minutes away. Better early than late. She was nervous as hell as she gathered all her papers, clipped it, and put it in her bag. What could go wrong, though? She took her keys from the table and marched towards the door.

Her soul left her body when Bunty slammed the door open while she put her shoes on.

“Dammit, _Bunty!_ You could’ve killed me!”

Bunty grinned widely as she raised a bag to her face. “McNuggets!” she exclaimed, but then she stared at Tina as Bunty let herself in. “Where are you going? You’re seeing someone without telling me?”

“I’m about to meet Scamander.”

“At this hour?” her eyes widen, her eyebrows raised.

Tina shoved her other leg into the boots. “He gave me two choices, _at this hour_ or tomorrow morning. You know I can’t do mornings.”

Bunty’s eyebrows could actually take off and fly if she tried to raise them any higher. “Okay, good luck then. Tell him I said hello,” she smiled cheekily.

The Siren’s Tale is a 24-hours coffee shop filled with sleep-deprived undergraduates and their laptops. Tina arrived early, but she could see that he was already there. She recognized him from his worn out dark grey overcoat (that he wore religiously since she first saw him) and his reddish, messy hair. He was sitting on the bar stool facing the wall beside the window.

She asked Chastity to make her a decaf while throwing glances at him. His overcoat collar was up, covering his neck. His fingers were tapping on the table as he took notes from a book. His glasses kept slipping down and he kept pushing them back to his nose. After throwing her change into the tip jar, she walked towards him. He was so absorbed in his work, that he hadn’t realized her presence yet.

“Um, Mr Scamander?” Tina asked hesitatingly.

He glanced at her, his head still bent down. It was when he recognized her, he looked up and smiled. “Ah. You’re—“

“Tina Goldstein.”

His smile grew as he closed his book, put his phone down, and took his glasses off. His eyes looked tired but his gaze didn't. Scamander moved a bit in his place and gestured her to sit. Tina put her coffee on the table and took the stool on his left.

He smelled good, despite the weary appearance. Suddenly, her nervousness— in which at this time had nothing to do with her dissertation topic— kicked back in. Did she just sit too close to him? She could even feel his body heat. Tina moved her stool away.

“So, Tina,” he spun towards her, his hair fell messily in front of his right eye. She held the urge to sweep his hair away. “Tell me about your project. I heard it’s about advertisement?”

“Oh, yeah— it’s…,” Tina pulled some paper from her bag. “Do I need to show you this first or...?”

He looked down to the paper in her hands. “May I?” He asked as she handed him the papers. “Thanks, Tina. But please, tell me about your project, too.”

Tina glanced at the paper in Scamander’s hand nervously. Her throat felt dry.

“It’s… it’s about photography in advertising,” she started. Scamander glanced at her, a slight smile on his face. “The usage of photography in advertisements is... not uncommon anymore. We use photography to sell the products, so it’s very different from the—um—fine art photography and photojournalism.”

She took a sip of her coffee. He looked at her, waiting.

“But also, um, we can see some companies trying to sell their products by using the end result of photojournalism. Whether if it’s—the very common—newspaper or magazines that actually has real photojournalism as their content or,” he glanced at her as she raised her voice, “Companies that need to steal their buyer’s empathy through their ads, like some charity businesses.”

Tina stopped. She really abused the word _photojournalism,_ didn’t she? Scamander was nodding, his eyes focused on her papers. She tried to remember anything else she might have forgotten to tell him.

“Do you like photography? Why are you choosing this topic?” he asked her, eyes still glued to her papers. His hand ran across his messy hair, swiping it off from his face.

“I do like photography, yes. I won’t say that I’m... proficient at it,” she let out a little laugh. “But I appreciate and enjoy it.”

She paused for a moment before adding, “I was about to choose another topic about, um, poster design for remake movies. Because... you know, how they choose to promote the _same—_ ” she made a gesture with her fingers, “—movies in a different decade. Some were photographed but some were illustrated... but they decided that it’s more for the graphic design major, not advertising major.”

Did she really need to talk this much?

He glanced at her. “Ah, yes. It’s an advertisement for movies, but the politics of the elements like the layout, typography, and colours make it much more suited for your friends from graphic design. So you ended up with the topic of...,” he read her paper, “ _How photojournalism affects people through advertisement_?’

“Yes, Mr Scamander,” she gulped her coffee nervously after he read her topic out loud. It didn't sound impressive compared to some of her friends’ topic.

His head moved to look at her, the corner of his mouth went up. There was a flash moment when they just gazed at each other.  “Please, Tina, call me Newt. Think of this as an, er, informal discussion. Also, I think Seraphina— Professor Picquery— already mentioned that this is a mutual assignment, that it’s okay for me to ask for your help too, for my project?”

To be honest, Tina didn’t really remember about that part Picquery told her until Scamander asked her about it. “She did…, _Newt_.”

“Great, then. You do have a camera, right?” he asked offhandedly.

She nodded as she took another sip of her coffee. The glasses dangled from his loose t-shirt caught her eyes. It gave her a glimpse of his chest hair.

_Pull yourself together, cupcake._

“Good. So, I have some experience with photojournalism and street photography. I probably could help you with that bit.”

Tina nodded again; she felt like one of those bobble-head dolls. Of course he had to have _some_ experience, because he was a professional. And yet she wasn’t even sure how to manually create a double exposure.

Scaman—sorry, _Newt_ sipped his coffee too and continued, “As for how it affected people, I think you should search for more help. I could help you, but not much.”

“I’d be so grateful for any help..., _Newt,”_ she muttered. Wow, that felt strange. She had spent a year referring him with his last name. “Thank you so much. Do you have anything you want to say about my abstract or the draft of anything that I wrote there?”

He inhaled as his gaze went back to the papers. He looked at it, considering it, and said, “I think I need time for this. Is it okay if I take this home?”

“Sure,” she replied. He was clearly going to have those papers scribbled with inks.

“Probably a few days,” he told her. His eyes drifted off her before he asked, “How’s your schedule, any side jobs?”

“Here.”

“Sorry, what?”

“I work here,” Tina said.

That stole his attention. Newt’s eyes widen but then his brow furrowed like he tried to remember something. “Really? How could I never saw you before? I’m here for like 4 days a week in the evening.”

She could ask the same question. He never spent his night here then, unlike those animation students with deadline chasing after them. Tina smiled. “I got the morning shift. Always the morning shift.”

His expression changed into an _Ah, I get it._ He moved on his stool, looking almost kind of expecting. “So nothing after 6 pm?”

Tina thought about it. Her social life was dead, buried under the ground. Practically nothing except weekly girls night with Bunty and Nagini. “Mostly nothing, yeah.”

“Great. I’ll text you when I’m finished. How about my studio, for the next time? I have loads of resources that would probably be useful for you. You could also help me with my next project.”

 _His studio._ “Sounds good,” she told him after gulping the last drops of her coffee.

Newt grinned at her. He was less annoying to talk to privately. Also less pouting and more smile. For now, at least. His demeanour might change later after he reads her work.

He fidgeted with his phone before putting it in his jeans pocket. “Great, then. I think it’s good so far. Anything you want to ask?”

They sat silently as Tina tried to think. Surprisingly, there was nothing on her mind. Like she was suddenly forgetting everything she have ever learned. “Oh. Um, nothing, for now.”

“Want to go home, then? Sorry I asked you to meet me at this hour,” he said, his body returned to face the wall. Newt pushed her papers into his bag, together with the thick-looking book.

He took Tina’s cup, stacked it with his cup, and threw it to the bin on their way to go out. He held the door for her, also for two girls who hurried after them before walking towards Tina.

“Main dorm area?” he asked her and Tina realized that their steps were synchronized.

“Oh no, no, you don’t need to walk me,” she turned to him. She gestured to the buildings on their left side. “It’s okay, it’s not that far— “

“My place is at the end of your road. We’re going in the same direction,” he said flatly.

Oh. How stupid of her.

The next eight minutes of her life was… awkward. Newt tucked both hands in his jacket’s pockets. For the first three minutes, Tina realized that they walked close enough because she kept bumping into his arm. She tried to put more space between them but oh, he smelled so nice it made her hate herself. Newt seemed like he wasn’t bothered with anything. His eyes were staring at the ground with furrowed brows on his face as if he was thinking real hard. The only small talk he made was just asking her to remind him of her last name. The silence blanketed the two as they kept walking.

When they turned on the intersection and Tina could see her building, she nearly ran into the gate. She looked back and saw Newt smiling.

“Thank you, Mr Sca— Newt.”

He chuckled, his eyes were up and wandering around the front of the building before gazing back to her. “I’ll let you know when I finish it.”

“Yeah,” she nodded. Newt smiled, turned his back to her, and walked away.

Tina stared at him for a couple seconds before entering her building. Her lips turned into a smile as she walked through the hall. She took her phone out and changed Scamander's name.  

Newt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How was it? I've planned the story line and all so I hope you guys like it! Please tell me if you _do_ like it. What else do you want to see on this fic? Tell me all! Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments make my whole day!  
> [This](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434845) is where I learned to use workskin on my fic.  
> 


	2. Chroma Flare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! Really guys thanks for the great reception of this series!!! I'm glad to know that I also have great readers. And then let's hope I can update this series once per week. Let's. Hope.

“So,” Bunty elbowed Tina, “how was your meeting last night?”

The lines on the cashiers were exceptionally full today. Tina and Bunty blamed it on the payday. They’ve decided to stock up on their mac and cheese—that meant buying _three dozens_ of it. Bunty agreed that this might not be the best way to live, but they couldn’t ignore a 70% off.

They also bought yogurts, two apples, and a pack of strawberries, so they don’t feel too guilty about the mac and cheese—or simply being judged by the cashier.

“It was fine, nothing special,” she said. _He smelled rather amazing, have you ever noticed that before?_ “Ne—Scamander took my work and said he would review it. Still waiting.”

Bunty grabbed a small chocolate bar from the counter beside her. “I miss seeing him on class. He’s still on Piquery’s classes, isn’t he?”

“Oh, he is. Picquery said if I have any trouble on reaching him I should just come to her class,” Tina said, shrugging her shoulders. “But he texted me back pretty fast, so no need.”

Bunty dropped one of her candy bars. She bowed to pick it up while glancing at Tina. “Oh, so now you’ve been texting each other?” her brows were raised.

"What?" Their line was moving, and they moved forward with it. The naughty-looking little boy behind them noticed the candies on Bunty's hand and started to cry because his mum wouldn't let him buy it. "Oh, just that one time I asked him to meet me."

The little boy fell angrily to the floor while crying, yelling, and accidentally kicked Bunty’s leg—the poor mum smiled weakly to them, mouthing _I’m sorry!_ , and scooped the boy up.

Bunty stared at the screaming boy, now taken away by her mum. “So you still don't know when he's going to give you your paper,” she stated.

They moved again as Tina looked over their unpaid ‘groceries'. Did she forget something?

"Um, I actually hoped it would take him like... a week," Tina told her. "No need to think about that paper for a while."

Bunty pouted her lips and nodded wisely. “More time to party.”

Tina nudged her. “More time to make mac and cheese,” she nodded. “Oh! Bunty, I think I forgot the coffee!”

* * *

 

But of course, life didn't go the way Tina wanted.

On the next day, when the all-nighters on the cafe closed their laptops and got ready for their morning class, Tina was already two and a half hours into her shift, trying not to fell asleep. She was sitting behind the cashier table, frowning over the list Rosier gave her. The doorbell rang, and she hastily put the list aside.

“Morning,” said a customer, his body cast a shadow over her.

“Good morning, what can I help—“ Tina looked up and recognized the customer.

Newt was standing there, looking down to the selection of the pastries beside her. He looked much neater and fresher than the last time they met, with his face shaved and hair slightly wet. He glanced at her and smiled. “I’ll have a hot earl grey and this butter croissant, please.”

He _did_ say he frequently went to Siren’s Tale. But after almost two months filling the morning shift, she never met him there in the crack of dawn—8 am. At the faculty, maybe. But not at Siren’s.

She nodded, her mouth gaped, still surprised. “Oh hi, Newt. Sure… let me get you the croissant—”

“Hello, Tina. Thought you might be here for the morning,” he smiled, digging on his worn, old-fashioned messenger bag and pulled a clip of papers. “Oh, and I’ve finished it.”

Tina put his croissant on a paper bag while eyeing her paper. She could see a trace of his blue pen behind the cover. Already? Did he come here only to give her this? "Newt, you shouldn't… You can—Newt, just text me next time, and I'll come to take it."

“Ah, It’s not a problem,” he shrugged and paused for a moment. “I did want a croissant this morning.”

“Thank you, Newt,” Tina said, putting the bag in front of Newt.

He grinned. “Do you think you’re off this afternoon?”

She took a cup and a bag of tea from the stacks. “Maybe around six? My last class ended in five,” she said, and suddenly feeling worried about it. Tina looked at her paper. “Why? Did I do something wrong on it?”

“Oh, no—you’re doing great,” Newt told her, his eyes following Tina preparing his tea. “I’m… I’m going to need your help at my studio. I’ll text you the address; it’s not that far, probably another ten minutes from your place.”

The hot water spilled on her hand; she jumped and cursed under her breath. His studio? Tina recalled that Newt wanted her to help him on his studio—she didn’t know it would be _this_ soon.

Damn. She shouldn't have told him about her morning shift. By that, she could ignore his texts for a few hours and lie to him. Honestly, she just wanted to be tucked under her duvet this evening.

But Tina was curious about his studio, though. Was it like a typical photography studio? Or anything else? Did he sleep on his studio? Will there be other people? What his place smelled like, sandalwood?

She reluctantly admitted that she did try to catch his scent today, but the smell of butter and freshly baked pastries was too strong in the room.

Tina pushed the croissant bag and gave him his tea. “Do I need to bring anything?”

Newt took his breakfast and gave the money. He smiled and stared at her for about a second too long as he said, “Maybe your laptop? And your paper if you want to ask about anything.”

Well, it didn't sound too fun. She was hoping he asked her to bring her camera or something. But she had to bear with it since her dissertation might be boring for him too. Tina put his money down and gave him his change, "Okay. There you go! Thanks, Newt."

He gave her a little nod, looking pleased, and turned away. Tina watched his overcoat swayed as he walked through the door, and sighed. That meant she couldn't sit and rewatch Adele's concert with yogurt in hands for tonight.

When Newt finally out of her sight, she took her paper and skimmed through it. Tina wasn’t surprised to find a lot of comments on it, but it gave her a shudder. Oh, it could have been worse. At least he didn’t read it in front of her.

“Goldstein!” the annoying sound startled her. Tina looked up and saw Abernathy stood behind the espresso maker. “Did you restock the flour yet?”

“Two days ago you told Rosier you would do it!” Tina said, exasperated. It wasn’t the first time he went around like this.

He raised his chin arrogantly, trying to appear intimidating although he was shorter than Tina. “And you were there—you know I don’t do restocking!”

"You know, you should stop trying to impress Rosier; it's annoying and disgusting."

Abernathy took a deep breath and said calmly, “She’s just blind, and someday she will— “

“Rosier’s a fucking lesbian, you toad!”

“She will not stay _like that_ ,” he shuddered, “after she spends a night with me!”

Tina looked at him on disbelief. The last sentence was told in such confidence, and it left her without words. She sat down, ignoring his remarks about her. She wondered, how long it would take him to learn about common sense? Probably forever.

* * *

 

Regretting her action on telling Newt that she was off this evening, Tina walked lazily while clutching her tote bag. Her Thursdays were long, with full classes schedule and a few hours on the cafe. A tuna sandwich she just bought for dinner stored safely on her bag.

She moved through a swarm of first-year undergraduates while looking at her phone, searching Newt’s messages. She didn’t know what she was about to do in his studio, but since he asked her to bring her laptop, she would probably be sitting through the whole time.

Newt  
  
**Newt:** tina  
  
**Newt:** 443 circe street  
  
**Newt:** blue building on the corner  
  
**Tina:** Hi! You sure I don’t need to bring anything else?  
  
**Newt:** no need  
  
**Newt:** call me if you can’t find my building okay  
  
**Newt:** or if you’re not sure  
  
**Tina:** I will, thanks Newt

After walking for another fifteen minutes, she looked around. He was right; it's at the end of her road. She had walked over there a couple of times during Queenie's visits. There was an Indian restaurant not far from there, and Queenie demanded to go there every time she visited Tina. Their chicken pakora was incredible, so Tina never refused her sister's request.

The blue building on the corner… the blue building on the corner… did he mean that three-story building? The top building looked abandoned, with the windows closed and dirty. Tina moved five steps ahead and checked the number plate.

It was the right building.

She crossed the street, her heart beating fast—which is weird because fifteen minutes ago she was mildly annoyed that she had to spend her evening away from her bed. Oh, or maybe she just needed to exercise more.

Convinced that it was the right building, (she checked it three times) Tina climbed the front steps and rang the bell.

Half a minute passed, and the door opened. It was Newt, looking reluctant before he saw her. He was wearing a loose t-shirt and jeans, looking very casual from his usual clothing. “Tina,” he said, his expression softened. He opened the door a bit wider, “Come on in.”

As he moved the door, Tina could see a beautiful girl sitting on top of the coffee table. She was probably Newt's age, with her dark, wavy hair touching the waistline and high cheekbones that made her looked a marble sculpture. She was frowning, but her mouth curved upward. Her gaze moved between Tina and Newt.

The girl immediately jumped off the table and picked her bag up. “I should go,” she said, smiling at Tina.

Newt turned to her as she walked towards them. “Leta, you don't need to—”

Unconsciously, Tina blocked the door with her body. “Oh, no,” she said, “please don't go because of me.”

The girl, Leta, smiled at Newt and kissed his cheek. She was tiny compared to Newt and Tina, but she walked with such confidence that made Tina get out of her way. "No, no, I really need to go; I need to meet Travers. I'll call you later?"

He glanced and raised his brows at her. Leta waved at them, her hair dancing around her back as she walked down the steps and turned on the corner, leaving them alone.

Newt cleared his throat. “Tina,” he said, gesturing an invite.

She stepped in hesitantly, glancing at him. “Did I interrupt something important?”

The door closed behind them. “Oh no, nothing important—we were just… talking. About work.”

The room opened to a sitting room; the walls were painted beige. It was a well-lit room, with a lot of pictures hanged on the wall and stacked on the floor. If they moved the coffee table and the sofa aside, It would look like a mini gallery. On the side of the room, there was a staircase leading to the second floor. Across the stairs, there was a hall leading to somewhere.

She stepped farther inside, eyes wandering on the wall that has a line of medium-sized framed pictures. There was a pretty black and white photograph of birds. A portrait of the girl who left when Tina arrived—Leta—was also there, gazing to the camera lovingly with her sweet smile.

Was she a model? A friend of him? A lover? They seemed very close...

“Let's go upstairs,” Newt said, waiting for her on the second step.

Tina stopped looking at the portrait. He climbed, with her strolling behind Newt. “It's a bit messy, but I guess you still can do your work here—I've got a desk ready for you…”

The floor opened to an open-spaced split-floored studio. There's a big fabric draped on a railing across the room, surrounded with softboxes and lighting. Cables scattered everywhere. The walls were brownish grey and weren't painted, giving the place an industrial vibe. A distinction from the first floor.

Newt walked towards the massive desk beside the lighting equipment, the one with a lot of properties (Tina suspected that those were props) on top of it. There were at least three kinds of fabrics, dry (dried?) flowers, and craft papers, all pushed aside, making a space that was enough for two people working with their laptops on that desk.

“You can sit here, and I’ll work from there—” he pointed another desk on the opposite wall with a 24-inch monitor on it, “—so feel free to shout at me anytime. But first..., are you hungry?”

Her eyes was staring on the studio, comparing the size with her place, and was taken aback when he questioned her hunger state. "Oh, a little," she waved it off. "Usually I have dinner about an hour from now."

“Do you want anything? I want to order in,” he said, picking up his phone.

“Oh, no, no, I’ll have my sandwich—bought it on the way here.”

"A snack, perhaps? Don't worry; it's on me."

What should she do? Tina smiled hesitantly, “What are you having?”

Newt showed her his phone, opened on a food delivery app. It shows a list of Japanese foods. He looked back at it and said, “Probably some udon… or curry. Should I get two?”

Tina moved closer and took a peek on his phone. Smiling, Newt showed it to her and scrolled the list. “I think I'll have the gyoza,” she told him, picking something that was not too expensive.

“All right,” he smiled.

It took him two whole minutes to order it from the app. Both of them were leaning on the massive desk, with Tina peeking on Newt's phone, agreeing when he insisted on buying her beverages. He acted warmly with a lot of smiling glances during that time—much different from his behavior on class, which was a cold, awkward stare.

“So… your work,” he said, sat right up from the desk.

Tina stayed on her place, waiting for him to continue.

Standing in front of her, Newt told Tina that he was going to have an exhibition and a book launching at the end of the year. His own exhibition. His own photography compilation book! He asked Tina to help him managed the exhibition, but for the evening, he asked her to look through three boxes of negative film roll to find a list of pictures that were going to be on his book.

"There you go," he said, putting the last box on top of the desk. "See, all the tubes have the number already, so you just need to find the tube, and check the insides," Newt told Tina, showing the negative film inside a tube. "Once you find the pic, write the frame number down here... and put them here."

He put the tube on an empty box. Newt stared at her, waiting for her response.

“Pretty easy,” Tina said. “I’ll start now.”

Turning the bright lamp on, Newt smiled. "Perfect. You don't need to finish it all today," he assured. "Once our food comes, we can take a break and eat."

Newt left her and sat on his desk; unknown acoustic music played on the room. Tina stared blankly at the boxes and tried to process everything he had said to her. There would be a freaking exhibition waiting to wreck her body this year—if she agreed to help him. But Newt made it clear for her that she could put this on her CV and he would pay her—which was great. She hadn't agreed on it yet, but she was seriously considering it.

But now she needed to look for 142 negative frames from three massive boxes first. Not a big deal.

Tina looked at the first image. It was a picture of a girl blowing on a bubble soap. Roll number 37… where was it? Ah, there it was. She opened the tube and took the roll out. The negative she was looking was on... the sixth frame. Easy.

But having her mind distracted by the negative pictures was not easy. She had two years worth of Newt Scamander's work in front of her, mostly unpublished. She could learn how Newt took his pictures.

“Newt? Have you ever make a contact sheet?”

Newt’s eyes stayed on his monitor. “For publishing? I’m not there yet.”

“You should, some of these are good. It’s fun to see your process.”

He didn’t answer—but he looked and smiled at her.

She rolled it up again, putting it on the smaller box. It took her around four minutes each to search, open, staring at it, and put it on the box. Sounds boring, but Tina was enjoying a lot of stories that happened on it, from children running on a dirty beach to a kitten sleeping on top of a sun-bathing English bulldog.

Her curiosity peaked when she got into the 14th image. It was... Leta's picture from before.

Looking on the roll, Tina immediately found the negative she needed. It was in the third frame. The first two frames showed a laughing Leta, not looking at the camera and waving her hand in front of the lens.

She continued to look at the rest of the frames because... _that_ was what she had been doing for the last fifty minutes. And since the rest of the negatives had none of Newt in it, she was stunned to find him there, on the last four frames. At first, she thought it was only 36 frames of Leta laughing with him, and Tina was ready to roll the negative back to its tube.

Tina looked behind her, checking on Newt. He had his eyes glued to his monitor, great. She took the roll and put it in front of the lamp.

It was him. Uncomfortable in front of the lens, on the first frame. He was looking away with his shirt unbuttoned on the second frame. Staring sleepily to the camera, topless… on the third frame.

 _Shit_ . _That_ was hiding under his shirt all this time?

It was hard to decide on what was happening on the last frame since it was underexposed. His face appeared only the half top, messy hair covered half of his right eye, eyes were glancing somewhere over the camera, looking very determined. And what was that around him? She squinted her eyes. It couldn't be...

...oh. _Oh._

 _Fuck._ It was a pair of _thighs_. Probably Leta’s.

His doorbell rang, and Tina jumped on her seat. She rolled the negative quickly, putting it on the tube, and threw it to the box as Newt ran down the stairs.

She felt terrible for what she did, but damn, the bloke got a ripped body underneath his old overcoat. Good hygiene and good body shape? She was impressed.

“Tina? Come down here, will you?”

Surprised, she squeaked _Okay!_ before calming her breath and maintained an innocent face as she strolled down the stairs.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is a contact sheet? [A contact sheet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_print#/media/File:Contact_print.jpg) is similar to a negative but in positive colors. This contains thumbnail images of all the photos from the shoot.
> 
> Ah, I can promise you one thing: except Abernathy, I won't do any character dirty. Do you like this chapter? Anything you wanna see in the next chapter? Maybe some little information about photography? Tell me everything! Also thank you for reading!!! Kudos and comments are the best things you can give for any writers. <3'
> 
> EDIT: I promise I WILL continue this story. Please give me time. Will take a little bit longer. I know, I'm sorry. But I will continue this.


	3. Lenshood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU FOR WAITING  
> I'm sorry it took me a long time to write. Life has been hard but, hey, here's a 4500 words chapter to make it up!
> 
> A disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker nor ever went to anywhere outside Asia, so even though the setting is in London, it's not 100% based on London, thank you.

“This,” Tina sighed to their cups, “is too fancy for me.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry—once in a blue moon, right?”

“A normal latte would do just great.”

It was a sunny Friday afternoon. Teenagers were standing around them, trying to get their best ‘gram in front of the cafe's iconic vine-covered window. Right after her last class, Nagini dragged Tina to Blue Doors; she insisted that  _a cinnamon roll and a hot latte will make you feel better!_ after Tina told her about how stressed she was.

Nagini didn’t tell her that the latte was _pink_ or  _green_ -colored.

The environment did make her feel better… for three minutes. The smell of coffee beans stored inside stacked bags and dim lighting calmed her nerves, but then a glimpse on the price of the latte—she suddenly got even more nervous. Eventually, Nagini paid for her. But… still.

Tina sipped on her cup. The pink latte was terrific but her broke wallet said that a cheap, regular latte would still be better. But when she bit the cinnamon roll, Tina cursed under her breath.

Because it was _heaven_ , and she knew she couldn't afford it on a daily basis.

Biting her ginger snap, Nagini asked, “Is it better now? Your wrists?”

Tina looked up from her cinnamon roll. “Yeah—this braces are doing their job well!”

After four days and three nights spent typing on her laptop, her phone, her left wrist flared. Last night she couldn't even bring herself to text on her phone. Now, she wore nude wrist braces on both of her hands, looking fierce as fuck like an athlete. Or that was how she felt about it.

Tina received a sigh from Nagini.

“You know you didn’t need to push yourself like that,” Nagini told her. “I know you always wanted to give your best on your work, but please, Tina—you need to rest!”

She'd done some resting. But it was not done _properly_ , like work, then rest, work, rest again, and so—this week was more like rest for days, then work hard for another day. But Nagini didn't know that.

“Well, I was kind of busy, you know that— for a few days—that’s why I did two weeks of progress in four days,” Tina tried to reasoning with Nagini. “But… you’re right. I was exhausted I didn’t even realize how many typos on the last two pages—more than ten, I kid you not, I was mortified—”

Her phone vibrated. Tina glanced on the screen, unaware that the sender’s name had made her heart rate sped up. She inhaled deeply, giving half of her attention back to Nagini.

“—um, yeah, so I was mortified when Picquery mentioned it to me. It looks like I didn’t even try to write it,” a long sigh came from her mouth as she unlocked her phone.

Newt  
  
**Newt:** how was picquery with your latest edits  
  
**Newt:** if you want to discuss it im in the library rn  
  
**Newt:** finishing my final manuscript at last  
  
**Newt:** faculty library

Nagini bluntly peered on her phone. Trying hard to close his messages subtly, Tina pressed the back button a second too late.

“Newt?”

Her heart dropped. “Scamander,” Tina answered quietly.

“Oh, yes, him,” Nagini said with the same tone as _oh, yes, trouble_ while Tina nodded innocently. “You should drop Scamander. You're not forced to help him—or maybe try to spend less time working on his project," she added.

Staring at her cup blankly, Tina pursed her lips. She hadn’t really told Nagini—or Bunty—about the details on why she’d been moonlighting on Newt’s. However, only stating the fact that she enjoyed her side project with him wouldn’t help as much, so Tina delivered her other motivation about that project.

“Nagini, I get paid to do it. A good amount of money,” she told her. When Nagini opened her mouth, she held up her hand, “Also, also—before you can protest about it—it’ll look good on my CV; this time he works with big names like Dumbledore and McGonagall, so I don’t see why wouldn’t I do it.”

The explanation got a raised brows. "Really? Dumbledore? How… good Scamander actually is?"

"Even better than we've thought before, apparently."

"I mean, I'm aware that he's great—I googled him, remember?—but I didn't know if he's better than that," Nagini sipped her latte. "But, Tina, you really need to reconsider that. Or maybe talk to him about the hours. Get home before ten. Remember that you still have to work in the morning."

Despite how it looked like, she didn't work that much for him. They would sit on his super comfy sofa and watch a documentary about penguins while eating. Tina would work on her paper while Newt sat on the desk beside her laptop, telling her stories about expensive old cameras. On a busy day, he would leave Tina alone as she was filing his works and come back an hour before midnight, bringing her warm cronuts.

_"You made it look so easy—I hate doing all of these,"_ Newt said during one night, standing behind her as she retyped all the technical information on how he took the pictures. _"Thank you for the help."_

Tina didn't take her eyes off the screen. _"Well, it_ is _easy. But it's boring. I totally understand why you hate this."_

_"I don't have a decent attention span to sit and do this kind of works."_

_"And I have bills to pay, so yeah—we got each other, Newt."_

A pause. He crept to her side, taking the remaining papers beside the laptop. They were sitting in silence except for her typing sound before he said, " _We do. Oh, and I just made carbonara for dinner. It's on the kitchen downstairs."_

_"I'll get to it, let me finish this page first,"_ she said, still hadn't taken her eyes off the screen.

He patted her shoulder and left her afterward.

“I’ll… talk to him about it, Nagini,” Tina told her, knowing that she wouldn’t.

But Nagini seemed pretty satisfied with it, and that was enough for Tina.

Newt  
  
**Newt:** faculty library  
  
**Tina:** When will you turn your manuscript?  
  
**Tina:** It was great! She commented on how poorly I described the capturing process, but anything else was okay  
  
**Tina:** Oh, you haven’t seen that.  
  
**Tina:** I should probably edit that before you read it  
  
**Tina:** It was horrible. You’ll laugh at me.

She hadn't met Newt since five days ago before she went on a typing marathon that resulted in carpal tunnel. They didn't talk to each other since they were both too busy—her doing the dissertation, him finishing the book.

Tina saw Newt once on the Siren's during the five-day break, looking around as if he was looking for her, but she was in charge of the oven, and she couldn't leave her spot. On that night she wanted to text him and said that she saw him in the morning, but she didn't. Tina thought it was unnecessary. She didn't want to weird him out by saying, _hey, I saw you earlier on the cafe, have you missed me? Lol but sorry I was busy that time_.

“You should. Your health came first, not money.”

Tina half-hearted nodded to Nagini, trying to appear as serious as she could. A split second later, her phone dinged again, and she took it in a flash.

But it wasn't Newt replying; it was Bunty.

Bernadette  
  
**Bernadette:** LOOK at what the ceramic kids made

[](https://i.imgur.com/Wq0atE6.jpg)  
  
DONGS.  
  


Nagini glanced at her, her eyebrows raised. “You've told him already?”

"Nah, it's Bunty—she sends me…," Tina tilted her phone so that Nagini can see, "...dicks?"

That didn’t spark Nagini’s delight (Bunty did send them lots of weird stuff). Unamused, she was back into sipping her latte and edited her picture of it on Lightroom. “Do you think they will glaze and fire those penises on the oven?”

"So it will come out shiny from the oven?" Tina laughed.

Bernadette  
  
**Bernadette:** DONGS.  
  
**Tina:** Neat.  
  
**Bernadette:** do you want one?  
  
**Tina:** Are you really going to steal a penis from the ceramic class  
  
**Bernadette:** they’ll be giving this out for free next week  
  
**Bernadette:** i think i want one for our kitchen  
  
**Tina:** Hm, sophisticated decor for the kitchen  
  
**Tina:** Go for it  
  
**Bernadette:** yay! i'll book for the big one  
  
**Bernadette:** what color do you want for it?  
  
**Tina:** Porcelain white or angry-red please, thank you.

The phone vibrated on her hands—Newt had replied her text. Tina tilted her phone slightly from Nagini, so she didn't know that Tina was not texting Bunty anymore. Talking about Newt made her nervous.

Newt  
  
**Tina:** It was horrible. You’ll laugh at me.  
  
**Newt:** ill turn the manuscript tomorrow  
  
**Newt:** let me help you i have plenty of time  
  
**Newt:** what time do you get off class  
  
**Tina:** Mm, an hour ago?  
  
**Newt:** come here i promise i wont laugh  
  
**Tina:** I’m out with my friend  
  
**Tina:** Maybe later?  
  
**Newt:** ahh have fun then  
  
**Tina:** I’ll come at 5?  
  
**Newt:** dont rush it  
  
**Newt:** have fun :)

Tina huffed as she looked on the little smiley he sent—it made her chest weirdly fluttered. Having to know Newt closer, he was unexpectedly nice—although indeed annoying—but he fed her sushi for dinner, so it was all forgiven.

Spending time with him was sweet and fun (and not only because she got free soba or something), but it started tangling with her own assignment, so she knew she needed to put boundaries on it. On her job, on their relationship.

Last year, Tina was dating Achilles—that good looking, sexy clown (no, not a _literal_ clown)—and in the process, she ruined her grades and almost losing her hard-earned scholarship. It was her own fault, yes—she's now aware that she shouldn’t let her feeling and mind get the best of her, messing up with her study and her time management. Tina learned quickly from that. She also learned that people like Achilles were trash and didn’t deserve her time.

She couldn't fail this—Queenie relied on her scholarship's money. Her sister needed it to pay her community college tuition. Aside from that, right now Tina couldn't afford her own education if it wasn't from the scholarship. She needed to stay focused on her study.

She swore off dating—and partying—exclusively for this semester. Tina only wanted to finish her degree in time, with good grades.

No catching feelings, no stupid decisions.

_...no catching feelings._

Who would she catch feelings on, anyway? Newt? That guy probably was on a... beneficial relationship with Leta, or more than that—Tina had found a second toothbrush in his bathroom—so... no. He's off-limits. He's just a friend.

A good friend. A nice-smelling and a cute one.

And speaking of Leta, Tina adored her. The girl looked intimidating at first, but she was actually real sweet. She hung out on Newt's place occasionally during the day and left about half an hour after Tina arrived. Leta had told Tina that she had to work on the evening, but never really specify anything about her work.

Hence she didn’t want to interrupt anything that was happening between Leta and Newt. She better open Pinterest and went to the Lee Pace Wasteland anytime she started thinking about her own love life.

_Now_ Tina was seriously considering Nagini's advice on cutting her time at Newt's place. It was a piece of good advice, although she'll miss the food.

She should start to do that… on Monday? She'd try to talk to Newt about it later.

“So, I heard a gossip,” Nagini said in a low, conspiring voice.

“Ooh!” Tina chewed her cinnamon roll. “About our faculty getting funds from Grindelwald Enterprise?”

“No, this is more of a steamy, cheap gossip, sorry,” Nagini smirked. “Someone saw Graves shagged a student on the library—it know, gross—or, someone told whoever told Credence that they heard Graves did it—”

Tina's eyes were round. "—in the library? Ew, but… well, I have to admit, that sounds kinda hot," she sipped her latte as Nagini gave her a dirty look. "Don't kink-shame me, Graves _is_ sexy—but if it's really happened, it's breaking the rules, right? Aren't they going to do anything with him?”

Shrugging, Nagini answered her. “If you're grading a student, or work with them, you can't go out with them; but if they're nowhere near your class… no one actually cares. Applied to the assistants and advisors too,” she added, nodding to Tina.

Tina glanced up to her, deciding if Nagini was warning her or not. She was ready to defend herself but turned out she didn't need to because Nagini didn't seem to care much about it.

“Soooo…,” Tina started, covering her face with the cup, “Is the student in any of his classes? Any details on that gossip, like—was it even consensual?”

She got a deep stare from Nagini. “Yeah, from what Credence told me, the girl was… pretty excited about it," Nagini answered, "They said the gossip itself leaked from her."

She sighed a long, deep sigh. "I know this might not be true but—sounds like Graves gave her a good time, didn't he?"

"Seems like it," Nagini stared at her.

Tina finished off her latte. “If I knew that you could date a professor as long as they’re not _your_ professor, I wouldn't take any of his classes this year.”

“No,” Nagini scolded her. "Tina, please don't."

After another hour of chatting about whether Tina should cut her hair pixie like Michelle William's or bob like Anna Wintour's (they decided on Anna Wintour) and who was the best Sith on Star Wars (they couldn't decide yet), they left the cafe. Tina walked to the faculty alone since Nagini was scheduled to meet a client. Minutes passed, but Newt still had not answered her text. Tina rechecked her phone.

Newt  
  
**Newt:** have fun :)  
  
**Tina:** Still on the library?  
  
**Tina:** I’m bringing my papers.

Still nothing from him.

Should she come to the library? He probably wasn't there; it's been hours from his initial text. Maybe she should go home and retype all the typos from her paper.

However, Tina kept walking to the library, in case he's still there waiting. She _did_ say she's going to meet him at 5.

A few hundred meters away from the library, her phone vibrated.

Newt  
  
**Tina:** I’m bringing my papers.  
  
**Newt:** no?  
  
**Newt:** wait tina  
  
**Newt:** are you heading to the library?  
  
**Newt:** tina?  
  
**Tina:** I am  
  
**Newt:** dont  
  
**Newt:** meet me in the river gate  
  
**Newt:** in 10 minutes  
  
**Tina:** Where are you??

The guy that had definitely _not_ been on her head for the past few days showed up in 8 minutes, sporting a simple t-shirt and a light grey jeans jacket. His chest went up and down fast as if he'd just ran and his hair was blown back by the wind. Newt bared his huge anime-smile at Tina.

“You look like you’ve been hit by a cyclone.”

He tilted his head, combing his hair back into its place. “So I must’ve looked wonderful, then?”

“I _do_ like it when your hair doesn’t cover your face,” Tina answered while smiling back at him. “Important business happened?”

A group of students carrying huge folders walked past them. Some threw a little smile on Newt. “Ah, no, just me, went on for a walk.”

“Did you get anything?” she smiled to him, glancing the strap of his camera out from his pocket.

He didn’t get what Tina mean at first, but after a few seconds of her eyeing his jacket’s pocket, Newt shrugged humbly. “Only a couple of birds and a sweet old lady. Do you want to try?”

“Capturing pictures of strangers? No. But I'd love to watch you perform from afar.”

After spending hours looking on his works, she was kind of curious about how Newt did his thing. Was it mere luck? Or did he sit and wait until the perfect picture opportunity come? Because she knew you couldn't just go and clicked the shutter button randomly and bam! Pretty picture!

“Right now?” he smirked.

Tina clutched her tote bag as if signaling him about her paper. "Right now?"

“We’ll review your paper tonight,” he assured her while they walked through the bridge. “Picquery did say you’re bad on describing the capturing process.”

* * *

 

“It’s APS-C, not full frame—unfortunately—but at least you’ve got a semi-decent size sensor—this, which looks pretty much the same with the classic GR— “

Ten minutes had already passed on Newt is Geeking on Gears and Tina was trying hard to remember what he had said about this “classic” camera—probably six nights ago—and recalled almost nothing. She needed to google it tonight.

“Uh huh,” she said—real clever.

“—the focus is nice and quick, it doesn’t seem to be laggy at all, also sporting a good price, if you ever wanted to buy one,” he finished, turned his body to Tina and clicked the shutter.

“Hey!”

He chuckled and showed her his capture. “Look at this. Pretty sharp picture, isn’t it?”

It was set to black and white, just like 80% of his works. On the picture, she was hit by the soft golden light from a 5 pm sun, hair riding the winds, and bewildered stare right to the lens. “It is. Did you customize the contrast?”

Still looking proud with the picture he just taken—or the camera, or both—he answered, “No, it’s straight from the preset—high contrast B&W. Saving it RAW so I can process it later.”

“I love it, Newt. Now please, delete it.”

“Step over my dead body.”

“I will.”

They walked around the busy street together—Newt took pictures of the couples, children, construction workers, or stopping for a full four minutes to shoot a random tree. Tina offered to hold his bag while he was shooting, watching his back a few steps away.

He was doing it with confidence, walking to strangers and took their picture right in front of them. Tina worried they would get yelled at for doing that, but she was wrong. The lovely family with their kid dressed as Maleficent smiled back at him; the baby's fathers waved at them, and Newt casually took more pictures of them.

On some occasion, he would ask Tina to act like she's one of the pedestrians. This happened when he had a certain composition idea, like walking against a group of people and her reflection on both of the tube's escalator glass panels.

Tina felt a bit dumb for noticing this too late, but now she understood why Newt used a pocket-sized camera. A bigger camera would appear intimidating and rude to people, while the smaller camera would not. Newt's camera, however, was even smaller compared to any mirrorless cameras Tina ever handled (not so many). She mentioned this to him.

"I love the feeling of this. It's so small, look—" Newt took his phone out from his jeans and pushed the camera into the pocket. "—it fits!"

Who would've known that he was actually a huge dork?

Laughing at how bulging his pocket was, Tina teased him, “Oh excuse me, is that—is that a Ricoh GR on your pocket or are you just really excited to see me?”

He took it out and put his phone back. “That’s a good one,” he replied sheepishly, a blush of red rose to his neck. “Next time, bring your camera.”

"Mine is a DSLR; it'll freak people out," she said, trying to avoid any possibilities on taking some stranger's picture.

But her effort didn't last long. “You can use mine, I’ll bring my Fuji,” he told her without any hesitation.

Then he stared at her for a few seconds before adding, “I have nothing to do tomorrow after a quick visit to my agent, I could pick you up, somewhere before lunch.”

“Is _next time’_ tomorrow?”

“It could be.”

She thought about it. This sounded like a study date. “I'm off right on lunchtime,” she told him, remembering her shift on Siren's.

He looked genuinely happy. "Great, I'll pick you up; we're going to have lunch first, I think."

Were people getting picked up and go to lunch first with their advisors? They were not, were they? The thought made her heart race up.

"Um, yeah, about that—" she started, glancing on him. "Let's… let's meet at your place. Or somewhere else."

Newt stared at her, looking confused. He stayed that way for around four seconds before a realization washed over his face. “Oh, _oh_. Okay. How about near the duck sandwich food truck?”

"I'm sorry. But gossip spreads faster than fire in a dry land, and although most people don't care about me I don't want them to think—"

"No, I get that. It's alright; I'm sorry—I should've known."

The sun was setting, and the sky was getting darker. Awkwardness clouded them as they walked through a park. She was flustered when he asked—Tina didn't mean to make things uncomfortable or made Newt feeling bad about himself.

It seemed like he wasn't sure where to go next, as they kept circling the park. They spoke in bumbling smiles and glances to each other until he finally used his voice, “You hungry yet?”

"Not really, but I'm craving some… savory stuff right now," she smiled.

Looking relieved with this new subject, Newt asked, "So, snacks?"

"Now I'm hungry," Tina laughed. The prospect of tasty snacks made her mouth watery.

They both agreed to go to the market that known with its all-over-the-world food near them. Newt put his camera safely to his bag, and they walked side by side.

Hot steam hanging up in the air, crowds gather in the provided chairs, eating from disposable paper plates. The smell of grilled sausage and spicy Korean sauce from the booth near them filled their nose. On their other side, someone poured noodles on a hotplate, and it made a loud hiss, followed by another round of tasty steam.

Tina was internally drooling. She hadn't been to this market before, but she had heard of it. This evening, it was packed with people, enjoying their time with friends and foods. All those glorious, mouth-watery foods.

Newt offered his arm and Tina took it—she didn't want to be separated from him by the sea of humans. They walked through the sight of colorful macaroons, people lining, children running around with their candy floss, and other tasty delights.

She hadn't even chosen anything but Tina already planned on going to this market more often, instead of going to the same hotdog place over and over again.

"So, have you chose yet?" Newt asked her as he held her hand while they were walking towards a very crowded spot.

A laugh came from her mouth. "I can't choose! I want it all!"

Newt beamed at her, and she felt her brain froze for a split second. Tina shifted her attention to the food stalls and found something interesting.

“Does that—does that stall sell poke bowls?”

Newt was looking on a stall that sold curries. “What bowls?"

"Poke—you never had one? Well, I never had one too, but I heard it's awesome, come on," Tina said, dragging him by his arm.

They did. The stall did sell poke bowls and Tina immediately trying her best to make Newt interested.

“It looks like a deconstructed sushi,” was all Newt saying but he did seem intrigued.

"Yeah but it's not, it's from Hawaii, and they don't use seasoned sushi rice."

After a moment of discussing, they decided to buy a big bowl of poke to share and looking for other sides to snack.

That was not an easy task to do.

“Mini tacos?”

“Oh look! Turkish delight sundae! I wonder how it tastes?”

"Those falafels look good."

“How about smoked ribs sandwich?”

“...cheesecake," Newt said. He suddenly stopped during the second time they passed the stall. "I want that steamed cheesecake. I don't care if you don't want it, but I'm getting that cheesecake.”

"You get the cheesecake; I'm getting the sandwich."

“Deal.”

Without any long discussion, they bought those meals and put them in Tina's bag. That evening has been an utterly delicious frolic—even though they hadn't eaten their food yet—and Tina was happy about it. They walked together against the strong wind with her hand off from his arm as Tina couldn't wait to get to Newt's place so she could satisfy her mouth.

But it seemed like the city wanted to play with them as the sky started to rumble, dark clouds covering lighting above them.

And it started to rain.

"There were no clouds an hour ago, not even one!" Tina shouted in protest.

They run together with everyone else to the nearest bus stop to shelter them from the rain. Under the bus stop, Tina was ready to say that she didn't bring an umbrella and maybe they should stay and eat there, but Newt was already pulling black folded umbrella from his bag while checking the rain.

"A bit windy, but I think it's alright. Do you want to wait or should we  walk to my place now?"

Tina was stunned. That was quick. Now she forced her mind to get back on earth and check the rain.

It's that kind of rain that would take hours to finish. Not heavy, not light either. “Let's just walk right now, Newt.”

He stepped out to the rain and looked back to her. Tina exhaled and walked toward him.

It wasn't a big umbrella.

She moved closer to stay away from the rain, clutching on his jacket. Newt moved the umbrella to his left hand and put his free hand around her waist, pulling her into his shoulder.

_Oh._

Her hand was hovering on Newt's back, unsure where to rest. They walked in silence for a moment—she couldn't hear anything besides the sound of rain hitting their umbrella and her own blood rushing through her head. Tina stole glances a few times, but Newt didn't even spare a second to look at her. She felt stupid; the touch was seemingly doing nothing to him; why would it be different to her? She placed her hand on his back, trying to be more relaxed beside him.

His hand didn't leave her waist. She could smell his neck blended with the smell of the rain. These didn't make her more relaxed.

A moment later, Tina stole another glance and caught Newt was gazing down on her. He smiled a little as she quickly stared back to the ground. Did he just pull her closer or was it only her feeling?

During the walk near her dormitory complex, Tina was afraid someone would see them basically cuddling each other. Tina could feel that Newt was thinking the same thing, because he fastened his walk, lowered his umbrella, and staring on his shoes as they passed her gate.  

But his scent + the smell of the rain = her favorite smell. If she could, she wanted to snuggle him up on a sofa beside an opened window while it's raining outside. For now, slightly tilting her head so she could sniff his neck is enough.

She really needed to behave herself. She would start on Monday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, that was a lot of CSS coding right there :")  
> I know I said that the theme of this fic is photography and not food, but i'm not sorry for it. Also for my Our Midnight readers-i'm working on it, I won't leave it hanging i promise <3  
> Another thing: The picture in Bunty's text is from my friend's Instagram, taken from our ceramic class. We were not the one making the schlong(s) but it was there, in our class.
> 
> Do you like this chapter after waiting more than a month (i know, sorry)? Please tell me, fuel me with love, i need it. I love you.


	4. Hot Mirror

It felt like her head was on fire, and she had trouble keeping her eyes open. Seemed like a few students in the room felt the same way as her. They typed with their cloudy eyes, looking more and more like the living dead as the sun rose up. 

Three hours of napping for two days. That was all Tina got after pushed herself through the deadline. Her heartbeat rapidly from drowning in caffeine. At least she managed to send the essay in time. Now her only problem is keeping her head cool whenever Abernarthy insulted her and making sure her customers get the right drink of their choice. Right after she clocked off her shift, she'd go to her only class on Friday and Tina couldn't wait to spend her Friday night unconscious, in a deathlike slumber. 

The thought of skipping Graves's class lingered in her mind. But she couldn't. She had to be there to defend her essay if needed—if she could keep her mind on the subject. Her eyes are open and alert, but she had the attention span of a pea. 

"Do you need help with that?"

Wait, she _did_ send her essay, right? Did she attach it on her email? In all of a sudden Tina remembered the article was saved in the download folder. It would be beyond embarrassing if she actually sent  _that_ picture of Ewan McGregor with the caption: _Help me, Obi Juan whoever the fuck you are… I am your only ho._

“Tina? You okay there?” Chastity’s voice yanked her from her daydream, thinking _well, she wouldn’t actually mind being Graves’s only ho—_

“Oh!” Tina realized that she’d been wiping the same spot for probably a good five minutes. She looked up to Chastity frozen in her way to put the freshly baked pastry onto the display. “No, I’m okay, just… lack a little sleep,” she let out a weird laugh. 

Chastity seemed genuinely worried about her. "You're sweating, and it's freezing here. Don't you want to take a day off? I can cover you."

_Aw. Aren’t you like, the best? But no, I’m okay, C. I can handle this._

It took Tina a few seconds to realize that she needed to actually answer Chastity verbally.

"Of course, of course, I'm okay," Tina laughed, trying to be reassuring but the sound that came out of her mouth was disturbing, "you don't need to worry about me. But I'll let you know if I need your help."

The shorter girl looked at Tina in disbelief, but eventually, she seemed to accept it. "Alright, Tee. I'll be right here," she said, walking to the other side of the room.

Tina knew she shouldn't open her phone during work, but oh, fuck it— she needed to see that she did send the essay, not some stupid memes. And turned out she did. At least it granted her a moment of relief, and another second to think about Chastity's offer.

Leaving her shift and coming back to her dorm was not a choice. Tina didn't want Bunty to scold or ask her questions, and taking another nap between now and her class is dangerous. She's pretty sure she wouldn't be awake on time. Staying on her shift sounded better.

Until an hour later.

Tina did an excellent job of keeping her mind focused, even when some customers did say she looked exhausted. But she didn't give the wrong coffee or change to them, so all is well. 

But then the corner of her eyes noticed a glimpse of _v_ _ery_ familiar light brown hair passing on the other side of the glass wall—she automatically ran to Chastity. 

“C!” Tina whispered, rushing her way to the backdoor as the little shopkeeper bell went  _ding-ding._ “Get—get there, i need to go to the back for a while— “

Chastity, bless her, immediately grabbed a bucket and pushed it to Tina. “Is everything okay? Are you feeling sick?”

Tina didn't answer—she took the bucket and power walked her way through the storage cabinets to hide there. 

She didn't have the mental capacity to meet him right now—she didn't even wear any makeup. It wasn't like she wore it all the time, or she cared so much about her appearance—she just didn't wish to explain her poor time management to him. Because Tina aware of how she looked like: sunken eyes, pale lips, and sheet-white skin. No one with a decent amount to sleep would look like this.

From the thin wall, she could hear Chastity talking to Newt faintly. “—looks sick. Pale face, cold sweat, and all that.”

Of course, Newt must've seen her scooted away. 

The last time she met him was on Tuesday morning—three days ago—when Newt came to the Siren's and give Tina her already-checked paper. They were texting through the three-and-a-half days' gap; not too much, but also a bit more than she was texting Bunty or Nagini. He didn't know that Tina'd been working her ass off in the last few days, and she didn't want to explain why.

Because how do you explain to your TA that you’ve been losing sleep because you’ve been pushing your actual assignments to spend more time with him? Ridiculous. 

Something had changed after _that_ night, the night he held her under the small umbrella. They still hang out together, last Saturday and Sunday afternoon _and_ Monday night, but it seemed like both of them became acutely aware of any physical contact that might happen. He didn't touch her, neither did she. Well, not deliberately. 

There was a time when they sat outside a nearby cafe on a breezy late afternoon after two hours of transcribing Newt's handwritten notes. It was a small round table, and their knees bumped into each other— he pulled his knee immediately, and move his chair a few inches away from Tina.

There was also a time when she leaned over too close as they were filing—her skin grazed him on the very bit, and Newt would pull himself away a second too fast as if he was electrocuted.

But it was still the same activity; only more professional, less casual. Newt would take Tina to downtown and taking pictures of an angry squirrel and actually taught her how to use range finder—or she would file and archive his work in silence as he was upstairs, developing his pictures.

Some part of her feel relieved, but another bit in the corner was hurt. Newt actively tried to not have any physical contact with her, and she was— _this is weird_ —mildly offended by it. 

If Tina thought about the umbrella waist grab again, it did make her a bit flushed. The touch felt too affectionate to be a polite gesture… or it could be just her spending too much time thinking about it. Maybe that's just how Newt did it. Perhaps he wasn't avoiding physical touch with her. 

Still sitting, Tina tried listening to the conversation although she couldn't hear much because all the machine whirling behind her. Her heart was beating fast, but it's not from the caffeine anymore. She sat still and waited until Chastity showed up.

“Are you sure you don’t want to get back home?” Chastity kneeled, her eyebrows raised. When Tina shook her head, she asked again, “I guess it was your friend since he frequently comes to see you? He asked me to tell you that if you need a lift home, he’ll be a call away.” 

“He is,” Tina gulped, receiving Chastity’s hand as she tried to stand up. “I’ll… I'll let him know later. Thanks, C.”

Chastity scanned her whole body as if she could detect Tina's illness and then sighed. “Let’s switch, I’ll take the cashier today.”

And by that, Tina got her spot behind the cookie display. After thanking Chastity two times, she sat and rested her body to the wall. Her mind still flying relentlessly to Newt and hoping she wouldn't meet him later at the faculty. To be fair, in all honesty, Tina just wanted to be left alone for the rest of the day.

Her reflection from the little display door stared back at her. Damn, she looked awful. Tina made a mental note to wear a thin layer of makeup later, just to make herself appeared like she had 6 hours total—not 3—of sleeping in 48 hours.

* * *

 

She should've just went straight to her bed since the end of her shift. 

Graves didn't even show his nose to the class. It was fucking cancelled. A third of the class has the same tired look on their faces; some of them bringing their coffee to the hall. But then, four minutes into the class without any sign of Graves's perfect hair, an email came to their inbox saying the class was cancelled.

Great. Now bed.

Tina practically dragged her feet on her way past the faculty. She tried to at least drag it faster, because she really, _really_ missed her IKEA comforter. Nothing in the world is better than her beloved duvet. Except maybe her pillow.

“Oi, Tina—!”

The voice startled her since her mind was filled with the tranquillity of her room. Tina swayed back in a sudden—her elbow flung over her body without knowing there was someone exactly behind her.

She knocked Newt’s hand _hard_. Now a handful of money, his wallet, and third of his coffee are scattered on the ground.

 _Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck._  

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you—" Tina muttered, kneeling to pick all his stuff. Newt didn't respond immediately—he ran to chase his flying £10s. 

That was when she saw it. His wallet laid open, showing a picture of a smiling girl inside. Tina bit her bottom lip, recognizing the girl in the image. She snatched it fast and pretended it was closed the whole time as he walked back. It felt like she invaded Newt's privacy.

“Newt,” she stood up with his help. _Fuckity fuck._ Her body swayed as she tried to balance herself. “I’m sorry. I get surprised so easily— “

The corner of his mouth still curved upward, despite the coffee stain on his shirt. He rubbed Tina's arms in a calming manner. “Don’t worry about it,” he waved, taking the wallet and money from her outstretched hand. “You alright? You look— “

“Awful, yeah,” she smiled weakly. _Fuck a thousand times, shouldn't you be in a class somewhere?_ "Not feeling really well today. I'm about to get home and get some sleep.".

“Do you want me to walk you?” he struggled on putting the money back to the wallet. “You seemed so… weary.”

“Oh—thanks Newt, but no, really. I’m okay,” Tina sent him an assuring smile while her soul dying inside.

“You look like you could faint anytime." 

“Trust me, I feel better than I look,” she lied. "Don't you have a class to assist?"

His brows furrowed in her answer. "I'm about to go; Merrythought left her files at the library, so she sent me off. No class?" 

"Graves bailed,"—Newt raised his brows—"But I'm not protesting. Been waiting to get on my bed since—well you know, I really need to rest," she added. Tina almost said _this morning_ , but she didn't want to talk about how she avoided him today. 

Then his fingers grazed her cheek. 

The back of his free hands laid on her skin for a few seconds. It wasn't a caressing gesture—he's checking her temperature. It felt awkward for the most, but mainly it was because they're in front of the faculty's library. Students walk passed by after them, but it didn't seem to disturb Newt. 

Tina sure her body temperature only dropped a little. Newt pulled his hand away, still looked worried. "Alright then—make sure you don't faint walking down the stairs." 

 _Finally_. Tina smiled weakly at him and walked away, trying not to run. But four steps ahead, Newt called her name again. 

Tina turned her head, starting to feel dizzy as Newt walked onto her. "Yeah?"

“I'm terribly sorry—are you happened to be free tomorrow evening?” 

"Oh, do you need something?" she looked up to his eyes. Ugh, his pretty hazel eyes. "Because… I'm not… free. I've promised the girls, sorry."

He stepped back, his shoulders relaxed. "Ah. Okay, it's not a problem."

"I probably can do it on Sunday," Tina offered. "What is it?"

Newt glanced at her, almost shyly, the edge of his lips formed an awkward smile. "Nothing. I just—want to ask you out."

 _What?_ Her mouth felt dry when she asked, “O—out?” 

The buttons on his white shirt were being pulled away as he inhaled. "Yes. There's an exhibition opening, and I'm invited—thought you'd like her works."

That sounded interesting and suddenly Tina kind of regretted saying she already couldn't go. "Oh! Who is it?"

“Eulalie Hicks. American photojournalist,” he added when Tina furrowed on the name.

“Never heard her name.”

“She’s a member of Phoenix Photos,” he said as if it explained everything. His expression looked subtly disappointed. “So… you can’t come with me.”

Tina proceeded to give him her best apology look. “I… really want to, but don’t think I can, I’m sorry.”

"It's alright. Don't think about that," Newt smiled. 

Something inside was pushing her to be a little reckless, so before she lost that dizzyness, Tina asked, "...can’t Leta go with you?" her eyes glanced on Newt's wallet for two seconds. 

"She's working," he said, looking unbothered. "And she won't be around after next Thursday, not at least until December," he added nonchalantly. 

 _What does he mean by_ that _?_

"Oh, okay," Tina responded, feeling stupid because she didn't know what to say. "See you later, then?"

"Text me when you get home, so I know you didn’t die in the way," he grinned. Waving his hand, Newt turned and walked away.

There was so much thought flooding her mind. Her heart still beating rapidly and—again—it's not from the caffeine she'd chugged. But Tina decided not to think much about it to keep her head focused on something more important: getting home. She felt dizzier and dizzier with each step—cold sweat running down her neck. 

Fifteen minutes later and she's on her dorm. Tina kicked her shoes off, took off her bra without taking off her t-shirt first, and threw herself onto the bed; she didn't bother to change her outfit first. 

She took her phone and type:

 

Bunty  
  
**Tina:** Do not fucking wake me up

 

Newt  
  
**Tina:** I'm home.  
  
**Tina:** Alive and intact.

 

And by that, she put her phone down and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

 

It was already 11 am when she finally woke up from that coma. 

20 hours. Tina slept a freaking 20 hours. 

Her head felt heavy—she was in a state between _still not enough sleep_ and _too much sleep! Wake up already!_ And since her stomach was protesting, she decided it's better to wake up, get a shower, and make something to eat.

Taking her phone with her, Tina walked out of her room, to check on the bathroom. Turned out Bunty already in there first, so she walked to the kitchen.

Inside their pantry, Tina found a pack of spicy Korean ramyun and thought, what the hell, she might have needed the spicy kick to keep her awake. Two minutes after put the instant noodle in the water, she turned the stove on and left the kitchen to sit on the sofa.

 

3 People  
  
Nagini  
Babes? We still up for tomorrow?  
Bunty  
Tina's knockeddd rn but i'll drag her dead body OUT if she's not up yet by then  
Nagini  
What  
What had she done now?  
Bunty  
Idk??  
I want to say maaaaybe marijuana  
But we all know she prob just eat too many cheese ughh  
Nagini  
Ey  
Want to grab some curry?  
Bunty  
Oh god yeeeees  
Prabhu?  
Nagini  
Come come come here  
No leftover for me? C’mon.

 

Newt  
  
**Yesterday** 15:13 PM  
**Tina:** I'm home.  
  
**Tina:** Alive and intact.  
  
**Newt:** pls eat something thats not boxed mac and cheese later  
  
**Newt:** help your body recover faster  
  
**Today** 7:01 AM  
**Newt:** r you okay they said ur not coming to sirens today  
  
**Today** 11:07 AM  
**Tina:**!!!!  
  
**Tina:** Sorry I overslept!!  
  
**Tina:** Yeah i asked chastity to cover my shift  
  
**Tina:** Feeling much better now, don't worry!  
  
**Newt:** u sure? body temp still normal?  
  
**Tina:** Yep  
  
**Newt:** want me to bring you soup when i get to leave?

 

Soup? He must’ve thought she was _really_ sick. Would it be rude to say, _oh no, i can eat better than that. Anyway, chicken fried rice sounds great_ , though? But one thing for sure, she wouldn’t let him know that she’s—once again—relying on the power of instant noodle. 

The thought of Newt coming to her dorm and bringing her soup made her giggle. It sounded so absurd yet super sweet. What would they do if he _did_ appear on the doorstep, though? Would she just take the soup from him and thank him like he’s a delivery guy? No… should she ask him to come upstairs to her room? But for what?

Maybe she could ask him to watch some movies on her dorm sometimes, for a change. Just a casual movie night. Bunty could join them.

 

**Tina:** You don't need to!! I'm cooking now :D  
  
**Tina:** Don't you have somewhere to be?  
  
**Newt:** you mean the exhibition?  
  
**Newt:** nah still stuck in the office  
  
**Newt:** where ur going tonight?  
  
**Tina:** First destination is the leaky cauldrons downtown  
  
**Tina:** We're don't know yet if we're gonna ended up bar-hopping!  
  
**Newt:** oh  
  
**Newt:** its a party?  
  
**Tina:** Lol not really, just a typical night out with my girls.  
  
**Newt:** you fit enough for that?  
  
**Tina:** Yea  
  
**Tina:** It’s fine! I have my friends with me.   
  
Newt is typing...

 

There were the triple dots, blinking, blinking, blinking and disappearing. Tina waited for a few minutes, but nothing came up. Seemed like something happened before Newt hit send, or he just simply decided not to reply her. 

Tina almost forgot that she wasn't alone when Bunty came out from the bathroom, wearing her towel, wet hair stuck on her face. She grinned to Tina before her expression changed immediately, and her eyebrows furrowed. Without a word, she sniffed around in her towel and walked towards the kitchen. 

Tina’s heart dropped to her belly when she realized she’d been boiling her ramyun since… she didn’t remember when. And she was just about to stand from the sofa when Bunty exclaimed in horror: 

“MY RAMEN??!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been weeks but at least i keep my promise to update this, right? I'm so sorry. This (unbeta'd) chapter supposedly longer than 3k words but I cut it pretty short and that means I already had the next chapter halfway done! So prayer circle for me to update the next one faster. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, guys, i love you. Please tell me what do you think <3

**Author's Note:**

> Say hi to me on Tumblr, [@puffstrikesback !! ](http://puffstrikesback.tumblr.com)  
> Also if you love this story consider giving [my moodboard post](https://puffstrikesback.tumblr.com/post/182789680259/hufflepuffsstrikesback-the-feeling-eyes-rated) a reblog <3


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